Health

Stacey Scapeccia founded CT Combat Training Center more than four years ago. The Holy Cross graduate's specialty is Muay Thai but she is also a personal trainer and offers kickboxing and fitness classes at the Oakville location. Erin Covey / Republican-American

The Prospect native joined several punk-rock bands. She became the lead singer for one called Dirt and toured Europe. She lived a hard-partying life in Minneapolis throughout her 20s. She documented her far-flung travels with gigantic tattoos up and down her sinewy, compact frame.

But it would take an ancient form of combat sport from Thailand called Muay Thai to give Scapeccia what she yearned.

"Once I tried it, I knew that was what I wanted to do. My friend who introduced me to it knew I was fired up and crazy," said Scapeccia, 37, owner of CT Combat Training Center, a mixed martial arts gym in Oakville. "I wanted to hit stuff."

And punch. And kick. Muay Thai, a form of kickboxing with stand-up striking, is known as "the art of eight limbs" because of its combined use of punches, kicks, elbows and knee strikes. The frenzied, fast-paced sport took hold of Scapeccia from the first day she tried it in 1996 in Minneapolis. Obsessed with learning more, she went to northern Thailand for three months in 2002 to study it at a boxing camp.

"We would train three hours, eat, nap, get a $3 massage and then do another three hours of training at night," said Scapeccia, her words rushing out of her and her arms gesticulating in a swirl as she spoke on a recent afternoon.

In Thailand, the sport is as popular as baseball is here, she said.

"You see kids practicing to put rice on their plates, whereas here, it's a hobby and about losing weight or because we like punching people," she said.

At the tail end of her trip, Scapeccia went over the handlebars of a motor bike and tore her ACL.

"My knee blew up. I didn't have health insurance so I went to an island and cried on a beach for three weeks," said Scapeccia, who has jet-black hair and brown eyes.

She returned home and tried to rehabilitate the knee herself. She continued to train in Muay Thai but was hindered by her injury. Finally, in 2006, she had surgery to repair the torn ligament. She returned to Connecticut, planning to touch base briefly with her mother before moving to California.

"I was sick of being landlocked and of being in a band and partying and going to bars," she said. "I wanted to get out of that scene before I got too into it. I wanted to grow up."

Back home, she found a place to train. One thing led to another and she decided to start her own gym. CT Combat Training Center opened in the renovated basement of the old Pin Shop in Oakville in April 2009.

"I love my dungeon. It's like a kids' playground," said Scapeccia, seated on a red punching bag in the 4,000-square-foot gym, where forever-sweat-drenched mats line the floors and trophy belts from members hang from the ceiling. Scapeccia's great grandmother once worked in the former shop making safety pins.

CT Combat Center offers classes in mixed martial arts for adults and kids. Mixed martial arts is a full-contact sport in which competitors use a combination of techniques including Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (grappling and ground fighting), Western boxing, No-Gi wrestling and Kenpo.

Scapeccia, who lives in Prospect, is also a certified personal trainer and nutritionist and works with clients one-on-one — not fighting required but some of her strength-training equipment includes massive truck tires.

It's a far cry from the type of sports Scapeccia did growing up. She played soccer during most of her childhood, but quit when she started Holy Cross High School in Waterbury and dove into the music and art scene, she said.

Now, she often runs six miles a day, takes classes — she is working toward a bachelor's in human performance at Southern Connecticut State University and an associate degree at Naugatuck Valley Community College — meets with clients and teaches classes at the gym at night.

"She's a rare breed," said Joe Grzegorczyk, a Prospect resident who is a trainer at CT Combat Center along with Danilo Cherman, a three-time world champion in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. "There are women who train here and there, but for Stacey, this is her life and you can see it. She's fantastic. She trains with men and has the heart for it. Plus, she's nice as pie."

Scapeccia would run 10 miles three times a day if she could, and is always scuttling about the gym mopping and cleaning, he said.

"We try to tell her to stop, to take breaks," said Grzegorczyk, shaking his head as Scapeccia led a class of four young men through drills in a Muay Thai class. Thwack, thwack went Scapeccia's swift legs as she struck her opponent, all the while fine-tuning his technique with tips.

Since she opened four years ago, sports like Muay Thai have taken off. Plus, Connecticut recently joined the few dozen states that legally allow mixed martial arts competition. Before the law, which was signed this summer, mixed martial arts competitions were only allowed in casinos in Connecticut.

Despite the growing popularity of mixed martial arts, increasing gym membership in the current economy is still difficult, said Scapeccia. But she's not without ideas, mentioning hope of working with city police officers and firefighters to make them more fit.

"You shouldn't see fat cops or any other emergency personnel," she said.

In the meantime, her sport continues to fulfill her.

"I love the adrenaline rush. I love pushing myself over that edge, bettering myself each day," she said. "If I'm not sweating at the end of a workout, then I'm not done."

" Stacey is a great role model to young ladies all over the Greater Waterbury area. She has built her gym and career from the ground up without ever taking a handout from anyone, I am proud to call her my friend. "

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